I’m not going to lie, my own personal tastes typically forbid me from playing most first-person shooters. I can’t stomach the tedium of run and shoot. PayDay breaks up the monotony just enough, and forgoes person versus person competition (which I also don’t like very much) in favor of cooperation for a common goal: To steal millions of dollars.
Indeed, PayDay was immediately appealing for me. Objective-based missions interspersed with enemy waves and the requisite of some level of team coordination makes for a delicious formula.
Well this looks a bit intimidating.
The game features 4 selectable characters, all equal in their ability but each donning a unique mask. Players begin each heist by selecting their character and their load out of gadgets and weaponry. At the start of most missions, all players begin with their masks off in what’s typically referred to as “casing” the place before you begin. During this time, you have as much time as you like to walk around unrestricted areas to figure out where security cameras and objectives might be… which can be important, as especially security cameras have a tendency of being placed randomly on each playthrough.
When everyone’s ready, any one of you can begin the heist by putting your mask on, which will force all other players to do the same, and the action kicks off.
Depending on what level you’re in, you can be lead into any number of objectives. In First National Bank for instance, your first task will always be to get the civilians on the ground, break into a room upstairs and steal thermite, then head back downstairs to begin drilling open the front doors that lead to the vault area. While trying to perform these tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible, police become a constant thorn in your side, coming in waves to try and stop you.
One of the downfalls and missed opportunities is in how linearly these missions often play out. In First National Bank (again), it doesn’t matter if every single bank worker and civilian is secured and tied down to the floor and if you take out every security camera, the second your masks go on it internally triggers the police’s eventual arrival, meaning that you can’t technically “stealth” any of the heists that don’t intrinsically allow you to (most don’t).
Should you and your crew be victorious in acquiring the loot and escaping, everyone is awarded with cash and experience. Experience is awarded to whatever specialty you currently have selected, and will advance you through that specialty linearly by providing upgraded behavior to gear you already have, and occasionally providing new gear. You don’t get to make any choices within specialties, but selecting what specialty you do level up does offer some satisfying choices. Anything that’s unlocked in one specialty can be chosen in your load out, even if you currently have another specialty selected.
The diversity of heists is satisfying. The unimaginative among us might only think of banks when we think of a heist, but PayDay offers a whole host of strange scenarios. You’ll rob a bank, steal diamonds from a private building, cut gold bouillon out of a crashed truck in a slaughterhouse, and more. All of these scenarios get increasingly tense.
Speaking of the ramping intensity, the police response to your actions equally increases as time goes on. Though you might first only face security guards or boys in blue, it’s not unusual to see SWAT being choppered in or special units being sent out to put you down. Special units have unique aspects to them and can be called out to the rest of the team a bit like Left 4 Dead. Shields can only be damaged from the side or behind, Cloakers sneak up on you Sam Fisher style and take you down in one harsh maneuver, and Bulldozers will unload a horrifying hail of buckshot and take basically no damage except through their glass visor.
When downed, a player must be helped up by a member of the team. If he can’t be helped up, he will inevitably be taken into custody. This is where it makes sense to take hostages and tie them down, as mentioned earlier. Cable tied civilians make for bargaining chips that can be used to “respawn” a teammate who has been arrested.
It wouldn’t be PayDay without civilians running through the line of fire.
All of this is a lot of fun, but there are caveats. The AI in the game can be really hit or miss. For one, playing with AI teammates is possible, but it should be mentioned that they will refuse to interact with anything or assist you in controlling civilians, which can make you feel like a chicken with your head cut off running back and forth doing objectives by yourself, especially if you have to run back and forth grabbing one bag of loot at a time.
Civilian AI and the police’s AI in regard to civilians is also lackluster. Civilians stand up in the middle of crossfire-something no real person would ever do-and get themselves gunned down, resulting in an overall penalty to your cash out at the end. Further, police don’t seem to have any regard for civilians. They’ll attempt to rescue them if there’s nobody in the area, but they have no issue with firing into a crowd of running civilians if they’re in the way.
Even still, PayDay is a ton of fun, but you need at least one friend to help you with juggling the objectives. There are some linearity issues that prevent you from doing a heist your way, but Overkill have their heads in the right places. Let’s just hope they maintain momentum and up the ante when PayDay 2 releases later this year.
